THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY- Man-animal Conflict, the two-legged animal, the 'lady' officer in field and more...

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY- Man-animal Conflict, the two-legged animal, the 'lady' officer in field and more...

This not a post, but a story that left a deep imprint on me:
A sub-adult panther was stuck in the bushes. I was taken by my seniors to the site the observe the rescue. It was a remote village on border of Khandwa and Burhanpur ( 'infamously' called as Kashmir of Madhya Pradesh- now I know why!)

A TOTALLY UNEXPECTED BEGINNING: 

We reached there at around 9AM. When the driver took a turn to leave the roads and started entering the field, I was thinking is he taken the wrong path.
What would you expect at a site where a wild animal is stuck- DESERTED!!! (until absolutely necessary) Especially no children!

I was too ASTONISHED  at the site.
Because the place was looking like a fair with almost 10000 of people, water tankers giving water to public for relief from scorching heat (temperature was 42 degrees at 9AM), 1000s of bikes, cars etc, tempos playing loud music, people merrily hanging around with their children on their shoulders.

THERE WAS MORE TO COME: 
On going closer, my mind went totally blank!
While Our staffs were already there making strategy for rescue, People were hooting, whistling and above all almost 20 people on a thin tree right above those bushes throwing stone on the panther and our staffs.

THE WILD TWO-LEGGED  ANIMAL:
We had to call team of police for the management of mob. Despite repeated attempt even using water canons, we were not able to make the panther make a single move and we concluded that he is seriously injured/weak/dehydrated only to find after 11 hrs he was just in the state of shock seeing so many 'TWO-LEGGED animals' around him behaving so wildly.

MEN ON MISSION:
While our staff and police team struggled whole day, mercury was rising higher and higher. People also didn't leave the place- they were also on the mission mode.

Rescue team came, we had experts from staffs, NGO, Veterinarians etc risking their lives (not only from panther but the stone pelting too), we tranquilized the panther. And tried to get it in cage.

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!
A mob of 10000 people came from all the directions, (it was like a swarm of insects) creating stampede. I was the "ONLY LADY IN THE MEN'S WORLD"-
"Lesson Learnt- Mob has no face".

A police man had to rescue me safely to the vehicle. People were flocking around my vehicle too, taking advantage of the ruckus tried open the doors of my vehicle too, and first time in so many years I had to SHOUT to disperse them.

Only to find 100s of them following us to chowki with even 4-5 people in one bike covering over 5-7km (burning their own fuel and then they say Modi Govt has increased the fuel price!)and taking selfies with the panther who had just gained the consciousness and also kicking his cage.

I left the spot thinking: How man seizes to be 'social animal' when he gets benefit of anonymity like in mob relieving him from social pressure.
And the second thought- there was not a single women in the mob. Found them totally occupied in fetching water, handling kids or collecting fuelwood on the way back.

Only in morning to find news article saying that- a panther attacked the people and forest department had to rescue it.

Sigh!! THERE IS ALWAYS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY